Category: Baseball History

After the integration of professional baseball, two factors combined to bring about the collapse of the Negro Leagues: 1. the best players from the top Negro League teams were signed by Major League organizations, thus weakening the top Negro League teams, and 2. the interest of black fans was quickly […]

From the 1920s through the 1940s exhibition games between Negro League stars and major league stars were both common and very popular with fans. Typically, such games were played between squads of “all-stars” from both leagues. The most famous series of exhibition games were played in 1946 between a Negro […]

Most people believe that Jackie Robinson was the first player to appear on the roster of a major league team. While Robinson was the player who broke the baseball major league’s color barrier in 1947, a few African-American players had played on major league teams during the late 1800s before […]

The first effort to form a professional Negro League was made in 1887. The result was the very short-lived League of Colored Base Ball Clubs. The league lasted only a week. The first successful Negro League was formed in 1920 by Andrew “Rube” Foster, owner of the powerful Chicago American […]

Actually, dozens of all-black professional and semi-professional baseball teams played throughout the United States in the first half of the 20th century. At the top level, the best Negro League teams competed in leagues that were regarded as the black “majors.” The Negro National League was founded in 1920 by […]

The New York Yankees first added pinstripes to their uniforms for the 1912 season. At the time, they were still known as the New York Highlanders, though the name “Yankees” was becoming more and more popular, and became the official name the next year. For the next two years, the […]

Here are the 1981 Baltimore Orioles starters: 1B Eddie Murray2B Rich Dauer3B Doug DeCincesSS Mark Belanger and Lenn SakataOF Ken Singleton, Al Bumbry, and Gary RoenickeC Rick DempseyDH Terry CrowleyStarters: Dennis Martinez, Scott McGregor, Mike Flanagan, Jim Palmer, and Steve Stone

While Babe Ruth is the consensus pick for best slugging pitcher of all time (in 1915 he fell just three dingers short of the league leader, in almost 300 fewer at-bats), he should perhaps be considered a hitter trapped in a pitcher’s body. Considering only players who pitched their entire careers, the […]

Mark McGwire is sixth on the all-time home run list, and first among first-basemen. 547 of his 566 career homers have come while he was playing first. Second base is not a traditional power position, and even the greatest to play it have not exactly racked up the dingers. Possible Hall-of-Famer Ryne […]

In the early days of professional baseball, fielders did not use gloves. All plays had to be made barehanded, easy fly balls and scorching line drives alike. There was no rule specifically forbidding gloves, but they were considered “sissy” devices. Supposedly, the first man to don a glove was St. […]